CHATHAM COUNTY — Firefighters are still trying to determine the cause of a fire that brought three different departments to the Chatham County scene late Saturday night.

The flames broke out at the Old Bynum Cotton Mill off Bynum road. Firefighters kept the fire from spreading to nearby homes and a small CP&L hydroelectric plant.

Fire Chief Mark Riggsbee says decades worth of decay left the building a target for vandals.

"It's a total defensive attack that we've been planning for years because we knew eventually it would happen. We've had other fires in other portions in the last year or two," he says.

No one was hurt.